Coronavirus latest: US brings forward travel ban on Brazil

• Brazil has for the first time reported a higher daily death toll, at 807, than the US
• A ban on travelers from Brazil entering the US is to come into force late Tuesday
• European countries are easing lockdown measures as they gear up for the summer holidays
• Several German states will hold Tuesday meetings to discuss changes to their restrictions
• More than 5.4 million cases have been recorded globally and at least 346,000 people have died from COVID-19

04:40 Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled part of an economic plan to revive Australia’s economy. “At some point, you got to get your economy out of ICU,” said Morrison.

Under the ‘jobmaker’ plan vocational skills would be improved to cater to industrial needs. Morrison also said that Australia’s borders would not open up “any time soon”, but it was still in talks with New Zealand over a safe travel zone between the two countries. Morrison also said that neither he nor his cabinet would take a pay cut, despite being among the highest paid political leaders in the world.

03:26 The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen by 432 to 179,002 in the last 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Forty-five more people have died, bringing the death toll to 8,302.

Here are the German figures from the past several days:

Monday, May 25: 289 new cases; 10 new deaths
Sunday, May 24: 431 new cases; 31 new deaths
Saturday, May 23: 638 new cases; 42 new deaths
Friday, May 22: 460 new cases; 57 new deaths
Thursday, May 21: 745 new cases; 27 new deaths
Wednesday, May 20: 797 new cases; 83 new deaths
Tuesday, May 19: 513 new cases; 72 new deaths
Monday, May 18: 342 new cases; 21 new deaths

03:15 A school in the Australian city of Sydney has closed its doors again after a pupil tested positive for COVID-19, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports. The closure on Tuesday came just one day after students went back to class full-time.

A spokesperson told the ABC that Waverley College in Sydney’s east had been “almost completely evacuated,” and that anyone who had come into contact with the student had been contacted.

Most students in the states of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria returned to school on Monday following weeks of distance learning.

Australia has just over 7,100 coronavirus cases and 102 deaths — far lower tallies than those recorded in many other developed countries of comparable size. The government says it aims to lift most social distancing measures by July.

02:55 Open-air swimming pools, concert halls, cinemas, casinos and gyms will be allowed to reopen in the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate from Wednesday. The low number of coronavirus cases there means outdoor events with up to 100 people will also be able to go ahead, the state chancellery said, but social distancing and hygiene measures must still remain in place. 

Germany’s 16 states are gradually easing coronavirus restrictions, but some are eager to move faster than others. On Tuesday, the state governments of North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin are due to hold their own discussions about how to proceed, ahead of talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday. New coronavirus infections have been falling steadily in Germany amid a raft of measures set to expire on June 5 — such as physical distancing and an obligation to wear masks on public transport and in shops.

The premier of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, caused an uproar when he suggested over the weekend that he wanted to reconsider rules on social distancing and wearing masks, saying he wanted to transition from “crisis mode” to “standard mode.” He asked whether the existing methods remained relevant, “when in half of my constituencies, there is no longer a single infection.” Saxony too has said it wants a “paradigm change” on coronavirus rules if infections stay low. You can read more about Germany’s debate over relaxing restrictions here:  

Thuringia: Germany’s coronavirus guinea pigs?

02:25 Germany’s Deutsche Post is planning to offer COVID-19 tests to thousands of its employees — even if they’re showing no symptoms. Board member Tobias Meyer told the Rheinische Post newspaper that testing would be carried out as a precautionary measure “particularly at larger facilities,” giving more than 10,000 people the chance to get a diagnosis.

Meyer said the company had already tested 5,000 employees in Germany after concerns about potential encounters with infected individuals. Of those tested, more than 20 were found to have the virus, and many of them showed no symptoms. For that reason, it’s likely “we have more infected people around our business premises than previously suspected,” Meyer said.

Deutsche Post is Europe’s largest mail delivery service and the biggest courier company in the world.

02:00 US biotech firm Novavax says it has started first-phase human trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine in Australia, with preliminary results expected in July. 

During the first phase, which began on Tuesday, 131 volunteers from the cities of Melbourne and Brisbane will be injected to test the safety of the potential vaccine, named NVX-CoV2373. Thousands of candidates in several countries, and from a broader age range, will then be recruited for the second phase of trials.

Novavax research chief Gregory Glenn told a virtual press conference that the aim was to make a proven vaccine available to the public by the end of the year. The company could manufacture at least 100 million doses this year and 1.5 billion in 2021, he said. The Novavax project is one of about a dozen experimental vaccines currently in development around the world; their potential efficacy is yet to be determined.

Read more:  Coronavirus vaccine human tests show initial promise

01:35 China has registered seven new coronavirus infections on its mainland, all of them imported cases involving travelers from overseas, according to the country’s health authorities. The National Health Commission said in a statement that it had also recorded 29 new asymptomatic cases, down from 40 one day earlier. The novel coronavirus first broke out in central China in December. Since then, a total of 82,992 people in the mainland have been infected, while 4,634 people have died.

01:30 Brazilian broadcast giant O Globo and newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo say they will temporarily stop sending their journalists to the presidential palace in Brasilia owing to safety concerns.

The papers said reporters waiting outside the official residence to interview President Jair Bolsonaro faced harassment and verbal attacks on a daily basis from government supporters waiting in the same spot. The papers said hostilities had escalated in recent days, and that they would temporarily suspend coverage of the palace until the safety of their staff could be guaranteed. 

Bolsonaro himself has been heavily critical of the media, accusing journalists of spreading false information about the coronavirus, a disease he has described as a “little flu.”

00:07 The United States has decided to bring forward a ban on travelers from Brazil, which has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world behind the US.

A White House statement said the measure, initially planned for May 28, will now come into force two days earlier — to start at the stroke of midnight Wednesday. It did not give a reason for the change, but said the restrictions would help ensure foreign nationals do not bring more virus cases to the US.

00:03 The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned Brazil against reopening its economy too soon, saying some coronavirus restrictions should stay in place.

The plea came as the country for the first time reported a higher daily death toll than the United States. Brazil registered 807 new fatalities on Monday, the Health Ministry said, bringing the overall toll to 23,473. By comparison, 620 people died in the US, which currently has more than 98,000 deaths — the highest toll for an individual country in the world.

WHO executive director Michael Ryan said Brazil’s “intense” transmission rates meant the government should be careful about easing restrictions before it had the capacity to carry out enough testing. On Monday, Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria said he would start loosening restrictions in Brazil’s largest state economy on June 1. Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro’s mayor, Marcelo Crivella, said churches would be added to the list of “essential services,” meaning people in his city would soon be able to attend services, despite most businesses remaining shut.

Read more:  Coronavirus: Brazil headed for catastrophe

00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here:  Coronavirus latest: Spain eases restrictions in big cities

In reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, unless otherwise specified, DW uses figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States. JHU updates figures in real-time, collating data from world health organizations, state and national governments and other public official sources, all of whom have their own systems for compiling information.

Germany’s national statistics are compiled by its public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). These figures depend on data transmission from state and local levels and are updated around once a day, which can lead to deviation from JHU.

Subscribe to Corona Compact — DW’s newsletter tracking coronavirus in Asia

nm/msh (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-latest-us-brings-forward-travel-ban-on-brazil/a-53565545?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf